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How the Cloud is Making Procurement More Efficient

They say that the bigger they come, the harder they fall. But when it comes to procurement, the bigger you are, the more complicated the process.

With a growing roster of suppliers and employees dedicated to the supply chain, chaos can ensue, if due care isn’t taken to institute policies and practices which govern procurement. Inefficiencies set in, causing bottlenecks and costing money.

How the cloud is making procurement more efficient is that it dispenses with the need for in-house procurement which can be costly and ponderous to implement and maintain. The cloud owns the software and hardware required, serving as a portal that employees interact within the process, but aren’t responsible for constructing or maintaining.

The cloud does all that on your behalf.

Collaboration and accessibility

Buyers and sellers are enabled to collaborate because the need for client software and system integration is eliminated. Everyone has access.

The key to implementing the cloud solution is to roll out automation gently, getting buy-in from all stakeholders as you move forward and they see the value of what you’re doing.

Establish workable, clearly-defined processes which lend themselves to automation to trim the chaos and inefficiency of traditional, cumbersome procurement.

Clear guidelines

To tame your procurement process, your first move is to establish and clearly document your key criteria for suppliers. In the absence of guidelines, you’re going to see the injection of a variety of worldviews and workstyles entering the equation and muddying the waters, as procurement employees follow their noses.

You don’t have to write War and Peace. Establishing as few as 5 clear, simple criteria can form the foundation of vendor evaluation by your procurement team.

At this point, you’re better positioned to begin implementing automation. Most manual interactions can be readily automated. These include mechanisms for approval and invoicing. Your procurement staff will be empowered to make more informed decisions, as they’ll have access to a wealth of information about suppliers, products and historical customer service, including the timing of deliveries.

Compliance made easy

With the cloud doing the procurement administration for you, you’ll find that keeping track of communications between your procurement staff and the vendor is much less problematic. You’ll be better able to police compliance, as all purchasing will be pursued with vendors you’ve developed contractual relationships with.

You can also customize the approval process to mesh with your company’s policies, ensuring staff compliance with the new reality, as well as that of your vendors.

CenterPoint Group

The cloud makes procurement a much cleaner, more efficient process. But there’s an even better way to do your purchasing – with a trusted procurement advisor like CenterPoint Group.

We create the right conditions for companies like yours to save on everyday business needs by leveraging $850 million in the collective, indirect spend.

With innovative analytics and up-to-date market information, we provide you with business essentials like office supplies and energy at a price that’s available only with the power of numbers – CenterPoint’s members.